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Fortney: Despite downturn, entrepreneurs still betting on Calgary

Author of the article:

Valerie Fortney • Calgary Herald

Publishing date:

June 22, 2016 • 3 minute read

Wayne Leong, Ernie Tsu, and PJ L'Heureux pose for a portrait inside Trolley 5, , built on the site of the old Melrose Cafe on 17th Avenue SW, in Calgary on Tuesday, June 21, 2016. Trolley 5, created by Leong, Tsu and L'Heureux, opens to the public on June 22, 2016.Elizabeth Cameron/ Calgary Herald

Fortney: Despite downturn, entrepreneurs still betting on CalgaryBack to video

“We’re Calgarians, committed to this city through the good and bad,” he says. “We’ve been here and done that.”

That’s why L’Heureux and his two partners, Ernie Tsu and Wayne Leong, are feeling confident as they prepare for their grand opening on Monday.

As far as restaurant/brew pubs go, this enterprise is definitely a case of “go big or go home.” Spread out over more than 16,000 square feet on three floors that can hold more than 400 customers — thanks to its designation as a restaurant, that includes the underage set — Trolley No. 5 is a gleaming structure boasting six-metre floor-to-ceiling windows on its upper “rooftop patio” floor.

Not only that, it has built-in cachet with the drinking and noshing set, having risen from the skeleton of Melrose Café and Bar, Leong’s famed watering hole that stood here for nearly a quarter of a century and helped give the avenue its Red Mile moniker during the 2004 Stanley Cup playoffs.

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Still, the eternally risky business of restaurant ownership becomes even more pronounced during an economic downturn.

The past few weeks have seen once-popular establishments like Farm and The Trib shut its doors; a Financial Post article that appeared in the Herald last week noted that storefronts in the city’s downtown have been closing at a significantly faster rate than their suburban counterparts, a trend blamed on oilpatch layoffs taking more customers out of the inner city.

While the bad news just keeps coming, you can still find sushi bars, organic bakeries and shopping malls packed with people who are there to spend their hard-earned dollars.

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On the same day Mayor Naheed Nenshi tells a Rotary Club of Calgary luncheon that, “people are continuing to make huge investments in Calgary,” Todd Hirsch tells me he believes that Calgary “is going to be a good bet in the long run.”

Todd Hirsch is chief economist at ATB Financial.Todd Hirsch

Even in a recession, says Hirsch, small businesses catering to consumers can continue to thrive — as long as they are able to adapt to the changing times. “With corporate expense accounts curtailed, people are paying out of their own pocket when they go out,” says Hirsch, chief economist with ATB Financial. “We do become more demanding as a result. We want the food to be top notch, the experience to be different.”

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Still, he understands that striking out on one’s own, whether that be a restaurant or a small retail operation, is not for the faint of heart. “Enterprise is based on bravery, whether you’re in a good or bad economy,” he says. “That’s where every business starts from.”

Spencer Schmick is the first to admit it took some intestinal fortitude to open Stuff, a gift store geared to urban male consumers, in January.

“You read the news and it’s so depressing,” he says of his shop in the furniture district on 11 Avenue S.W. “One day it’s about stores closing, another it’s about tax hikes that are going to hit us hard.”

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Yet his first six months in business, he says, have proven to be mostly a success — a fact he attributes to his quick response to changing consumer wants and needs in a struggling economy.

“People are still buying, but they’re not going for big ticket items like furniture,” he says of his store that offers everything from sofas and lighting fixtures to clothing and men’s grooming products. “I’ve really increased the boutique products, because people come in here wanting something different from what they can get anywhere else.”

Over at Trolley No. 5 the entrepreneurs, preparing for Monday’s opening, agree that striking out on one’s own is not for the timid.

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Wayne Leong, former president of Melrose Bar, poses in the new Trolley 5. Elizabeth Cameron Elizabeth Cameron/Calgary Herald

“It’s a privilege to run your own business, not a right,” says Leong, who learned the ropes from his restaurateur parents as a kid growing up in Taber. “You have to earn the loyalty. When the money isn’t flowing like water in Calgary, people want value for their money, in the food and the atmosphere.”

When the economy is struggling, adds L’Heureux, the instinct of an entrepreneur is to help stimulate it rather than complain about it.

“We’re bringing full and part-time jobs to 138 people,” says the experienced restaurant and bar owner. “People are excited about new jobs — and they’re excited to go to a new place.”

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